Early Career EFL Teachers’ Instructional Challenges/Kariyerlerinin Başındaki İngilizce Öğretmenlerinin Karşılaştıkları Öğretim Zorlukları

Abstract

Although there is an established strand of literature on the ways pre-service EFL teachers are learning to teach, the professional learning experiences of in-service EFL teachers have been underexplored. This study explored the early career EFL teachers’ instructional challenges, the ways they cope with those challenges, and the extent to which their pre-service teacher education prepared them to teach in their current context. It relied on qualitative data gleaned from in-depth individual interviews with ten practicing EFL teachers working at an intensive English program at a private university in Turkey. Constant comparative method was utilized to analyze the data. The findings demonstrated that EFL teachers’ instructional challenges stemmed from curricular constraints and learners’ lack of motivation to learn and use English, both of which are situated within their context. Their collegial interactions with coworkers and autonomous ventures to seek support proved instrumental in handling those challenges. As for their pre-service teacher education, the participants voiced concerns primarily about too much theoretical knowledge in the coursework, which left very little room for practical application, and the content, length, and contexts of clinical experiences. This research contributed to the relevant literature on teachers’ challenges in teaching context as part of their ongoing teacher learning, distance of linguistics, SLA, and literature courses from ELT practices, and complex role of teacher candidates’ clinical experiences in contributing to their socialization into teaching profession and identity development. 

References

1. Alsup, J. (2006). Teacher identity discourses: Negotiating personal and professional spaces. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
2. Atay, D. (2007). Beginning teacher efficacy and the practicum in an EFL context. Teacher Development, 11(2), 203-219.
3. Atay, D. (2008). Teacher research for professional development. ELT Journal, 62(2), 139-147.
4. Andrews, S.J., & McNeill, A. (2005). Knowledge about language and the ‘good’ language teachers. In N. Bartels (Ed.), Applied linguistics and language teacher education (pp. 159-178). New York, NY: Springer.
5. Aydın, S. (2012). Factors causing demotivation in EFL teaching process: A case study. The Qualitative Report, 17, 1-13.
6. Bailey, K.M. (2006). Language teacher supervision: A case-based approach. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
7. Ballet, K., & Kelchtermans, G. (2009). Struggling with workload: Primary teachers’ experience of intensification. Teaching and Teacher Education, 25(8), 1150-1157.
8. Bayrakçı, M. (2009). In-service teacher training in Japan and Turkey: a comparative analysis of institutions and practices. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 34(1), 10-22.

9. Bartels, N. (Ed.). (2005). Applied linguistics and language teacher education. New York, NY: Springer.
10. Bayyurt, Y. (2006). Non-native English language teachers’ perspective on culture in English as foreign language classrooms. Teacher Development, 10(2), 233-247.
11. Brouwer, N., & Korthagen, F. (2005). Can teacher education make a difference?. American Educational Research Journal, 42(1), 153-224.
12. Büyükyavuz O. & İnal S. (2008). A Descriptive Study on Turkish Teachers of English Regarding Their Professional Needs, Efforts for Development and Available Resources. The Asian EFL Journal, 10(3), 215-233.
13. Clark, C.M. (1988). “What veteran teachers learn from beginners.” Paper presented at the annual conference of American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, LA.
14. Clement, M., & Vandenberghe, R. (2000). Teachers’ professional development: a solitary or collegial (ad)venture?. Teaching and teacher education, 16(1), 81-101.
15. Cochran-Smith, M., Cannady, M., McEachern, K., Mitchell, K., Piazza, P., Power, C., & Ryan, A. (2012). Teachers’ education and outcomes: Mapping the research terrain. Teachers College Record, 114(10), 1-49.
16. Cole, A.L., & Knowles, J.G. (1993). Teacher development partnership research: A focus on methods and issues. American Educational Research Journal, 30(3), 473-495.
17. Corbin, J., & Strauss, A. (2014). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage publications.
18. Creswell, J.W. (2007). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
19. Crookes, G. (2003). A practicum in TESOL: Professional development through teaching practice. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
20. Darling-Hammond, L. (2000). How teacher education matters. Journal of Teacher Education, 51(3), 166-173.
21. Darling-Hammond, L. (2006). Constructing 21st-century teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 57(3), 300-314.
22. Day, C. (1999). Developing teachers. The challenges of lifelong learning. London, UK: Falmer Press.
23. Devrim, D.Y., & Bayyurt, Y. (2010). Students’ understandings and preferences of the role and place of “culture” in English language teaching: A focus in an EFL context. TESOL Journal, 2, 4-23.
24. Firestone, W.A. (2014). Teacher evaluation policy and conflicting theories of motivation. Educational Researcher, 43(2), 100-107.
25. Flores, M.A. (2001). Person and context in becoming a new teacher. Journal of Education for Teaching: International Research and Pedagogy, 27(2), 135-148.
26. Flores, M.A., & Day, C. (2006). Contexts which shape and reshape new teachers’ identities: A multi-perspective study. Teaching and Teacher Education, 22(2), 219-232.
27. Freeman, D. (2002). The hidden side of the work: Teacher knowledge and learning to teach. Language Teaching, 35, 1-13.
28. Freeman, D., & Johnson, K.E. (1998). Reconceptualizing the knowledge base of language teacher education, TESOL Quarterly, 32(3), 397-417.
29. Gebhard, J.G. (2009). The practicum. In A. Burns & J. C. Richards (Eds.). The Cambridge Guide to Second language teacher education (pp. 250-258). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
30. Golombek, P.R. (1998). A study of language teachers’ personal practical knowledge, TESOL Quarterly, 32(3), 447-464.
31. Golombek, P., & Doran, M. (2014). Unifying cognition, emotion, and activity in language teacher professional development. Teaching and Teacher Education, 39, 102-111.
32. Graves, K. (2009). The curriculum of second language teacher education. In A. Burns & J. C. Richards (Eds.). The Cambridge Guide to Second language teacher education (pp. 115-124). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
33. Johnson, K.E. (2009). Second language teacher education: A sociocultural perspective. New York, NY: Routledge.
34. Johnston, B., & Goettsch, K. (2000). In search of the knowledge base of language teaching: Explanations by experienced teachers. Canadian Modern Language Review, 56(3), 437-468.
35. Kennedy, M. (1991). An agenda for research on teacher learning (National Center for Research on Teacher Learning Special Report). East Lansing: Michigan State University.
36. Kırkgöz, Y. (2007). English language teaching in Turkey policy changes and their implementations. RELC Journal, 38(2), 216-228.
37. Korthagen, F. A. (2010). Situated learning theory and the pedagogy of teacher education: Towards an integrative view of teacher behavior and teacher learning. Teaching and Teacher Education, 26(1), 98-106.
38. LaFond, L., & Doğançay-Aktuna, S. (2009). Teacher perspectives on linguistics in TESOL teacher education. Language Awareness, 18(3-4), 345-365.
39. Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (2001). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
40. Liston, D., Borko, H., & Whitcomb, J. (2008). The teacher educator's role in enhancing teacher quality. Journal of Teacher Education, 59(2), 111-116.
41. Liston, D., Whitcomb, J., & Borko, H. (2006). Too little or too much: Teacher preparation and the first years of teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 57(4), 351-358.
42. Little, J. W. (2002). Locating learning in teachers’ communities of practice: Opening up problems of analysis in records of everyday work. Teaching and Teacher Education, 18(8), 917-946.
43. Lortie, D. (1975). School-teacher: A sociological study. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
44. Luk, J. (2012). Teachers’ ambivalence in integrating culture with EFL teaching in Hong Kong. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 25(3), 249-264.
45. Lunenberg, M., Dengerink, J., & Korthagen, F. (2014). The professional teacher educator. Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers.
46. McKay, S.L. (2002). Teaching English as an international language: Rethinking goals and approaches. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
47. Mede, E., & Akyel, A.S. (2014). Design of a language preparatory program: A case study. Journal of Theory and Practice in Education, 10(3), 643-666.
48. Meirink, J. A., Meijer, P. C., Verloop, N., & Bergen, T. C. (2009). How do teachers learn in the workplace? An examination of teacher learning activities. European Journal of Teacher Education, 32(3), 209-224.
49. Merriam, S.B. (1998). Qualitative research and case study applications in education. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
50. Mirici, I. H. (2006). Electonic in-service teacher training for the new national EFL curriculum in Turkey. The Online Journal of Distance Education, 7(1), 155-164.
51. Morgan, B. (2004). Teacher identity as pedagogy: Towards a field-internal conceptualisation in bilingual and second language education. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 7(2-3), 172-188.
52. Olsen, B. (2008). Teaching what they learn, learning what they live: How teachers’ personal histories shape their professional development. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers.
53. Ölmez Öztürk, E. (2015). A qualitative study on the motivation of Turkish EFL teachers working at state universities. Journal of Theory and Practice in Education, 11(4), 1436-1453.
54. Özer, B. (2004). In-service training of teachers in Turkey at the beginning of the 2000s. Journal of In-service Education, 30(1), 89-100.
55. Pardo, L. S. (2006). The role of context in learning to teach writing: What teacher educators need to know to support beginning urban teachers. Journal of Teacher Education, 57(4), 378-394.
56. Patton, M.Q. (1990). Qualitative evaluation and research methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
57. Peercy, M.M. (2012). Problematizing the theory-practice gap: How ESL teachers make sense of their preservice education. Journal of Theory and Practice in Education, 8(1), 20-40.
58. Rowan, B., Correnti, R., & Miller, R. (2002). What large-scale survey research tells us about teacher effects on student achievement: Insights from the prospects study of elementary schools. The Teachers College Record, 104(8), 1525-1567.
59. Schocker-v. Ditfurth, M. & Legutke, M. (2007). Teacher Preparation: Second Language. In K. Brown (Ed.) Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics. (2nd edition), (pp. 512-521). Oxford: Elsevier.
60. Selvi, A. F. (2012). A Quest to Prepare All English Language Teachers for Diverse Teaching Settings: If Not Us, Who? If Not Now, When?. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland.
61. Selvi, A. F., & Yazan, B. (2013). Teaching English as an international language. Alexandria, VA: TESOL Press.
62. Sharkey, J. (2004). ESOL Teachers' knowledge of context as critical mediator in curriculum development. TESOL Quarterly, 38(2), 279-300.
63. Shulman, L. S., & Shulman, J. H. (2004). How and what teachers learn: A shifting perspective. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 36(2), 257-271.
64. Singh, G., & Richards, J. (2009). Teaching and learning in the language teacher education course room. In A. Burns and J. C. Richards (Eds.), The Cambridge guide to second language teacher education (pp. 201-208). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
65. Stake, R.E. (1995). The art of case study research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
66. Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1998). Basics of qualitative research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
67. Tabachnick, B.R., & Zeichner, K.M. (1984). The impact of the student teaching experience on the development of teacher perspectives. Journal of Teacher Education, 35(6), 28-36.
68. Tudor, I. (2002). Exploring context: Localness and the role of ethnography. Humanising Language Teaching, 4(2), 1-9.
69. Uysal, H. H. (2012). Evaluation of an in-service training program for primary-school language teachers in Turkey. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 37(7), 14-29.
70. Üzüm, B. (2015). Uncovering the layers of foreign language teacher socialization: A qualitative case study of Fulbright language teaching assistants. Language Teaching Research.
71. Vanci-Osam, U., & Akşit, T. (2000). Do intentions and perceptions always meet? A case study regarding the use of a teacher appraisal scheme in an English language teaching environment. Teaching and Teacher Education, 16(2), 255-267.
72. Yazan, B. (2014). How ESOL teacher candidates construct their teacher identities: A case study of an MATESOL program (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Maryland, College Park.
73. Yazan, B. (2015). “You learn best when you’re in there:” ESOL teacher learning in practicum. CATESOL Journal, 27(2), 171-199.
74. Zeichner, K.M., & Tabachnick, B.R. (1981). Are the effects of university teacher education “washed out” by school experience? Journal of Teacher Education, 32(3), 7-11.